A Moment of Change
by DawnofAzazel
Summary: After activating the Cursed Seal in the forest of Death Sasuke decides to test his new power on Naruto Non retarded Naruto
1. Prologue

I've got four broken ribs and a fucked up face and my fucking teammate that I got injured protecting has decided that he needs to kill me, and for what? To test himself? The dirty fuck.

Well if he thinks im about to sit and beg for my life he must be some sort of cunt, what a lot of people don't seem to realise about me is that I should have graduated from the academy three years ago two years above my age group if not for me failing on one pathetic ninjutsu, no leg ups for me like a demented spandex wearing freak I know but I got over that I moved past my anger at that situation because I had a team people who would acknowledge me, people who care for me, who would protect me as I protect them but if this is the sort of attitude I receive for saving this dirty fuck's life, fuck him, fuck everyone what have they done for me? Fuck all that's what.

It was a real life changing moment and it happened in seconds One second I wake to see Sasuke standing over some sound-nin with purple chakra spewing from his tenketsu covered in some sort of freaky tattoo and the next hes glaring at me spouting some fucking bollocks about testing his power well that's it the gloves are off jumping back to put some distance between myself and the rampaging lunatic I plan my attack I can't get caught up in a ninjutsu battle with him mostly because I dont know any offensive jutsu but also because he seems to have power to burn at the moment I summon about a hundred shadow clones.

Its easy to tell hes enraged, not thinking straight where ordinarily the sharingan would allow him to chew through my clones lashing out on all sides to take them down he has tunnel vision for where I was when I summoned the shadow clones, where a shadow clone now stands having kawarimi'd with him in the initial confusion, hes fighting like an idiot and hes taking the blows to prove it unfortunately for me he seems to be shrugging them off like they're little more than annoying gnats.

I had hoped I would be able to overwhelm him with superior numbers and knock him out but as I watch him tear through the last couple dozen shadow clones it occurs to me that I may have to cripple him, Joy, I can already see myself being lynched by the fucking council right now, some righteous retribution.

Fuck it, I watch dispassionately as one of my dopplegangers stabs him hilt deep with a couple of kunai in the back of his hamstrings taking care to avoid his femoral arteries, killing him would cause me all sorts of issues not the least of which would be failing this exam.

As the clone that hamstrung him moves to knock him out with a quick blow to the back of the head its forced to dodge the shuriken sent by my obviously distraught teammate, its clear where the loyalty lies there fortunately for me she's about as useful as tits on a bull and is quickly dealt with by an almighty right hook to the face and by god her head is as hard as a fucking rock my hand is throbbing like all hell and I think I dropped a fucking knuckle never the less shes out and her nose is now plastered across her face, well there goes what little looks she had stupid bitch that she is.

Picking up the Heaven scroll while directing my clones to do the same to my teamtraitors I turn to face the other teams still here Teams 9 and 10 the Hyuuga from Team 10 looks at me for a moment before grabbing the spandexed freak and leaving.

"How about" I intoned "You lot go your way and ill go mine just like with them" I say indicating towards the direction Team 9 have just gone.

"No need for things to get messy " raising my arms in a calming and non-threatening manner but even as I say it I can tell things aren't going to go that easily Ino looks about as pleased with the situation as I am, which is to say just about one step down from outright murderous.

"YOU!, YOU DEMON!"

Sigh, this wasn't going to end even close to peacefully.

"How could you do that to your teammates! My mother was right about you, you are a Demon."

"Ino" Shikamaru started "Perhaps we should just lea..."

"Are you crazy? Didn't you see what he did to them"

"What I did to them?" I question "I didn't attack them I just defended myself, the only reason they aren't dead right now is they are members of my team, with you I would have no such compunctions from gutting you like a two ryo whore"

Instead of backing down as i'd hoped she drew a kunai, well fuck that, before she could blink I rode her to the ground and held a kunai to her throat predictably I was frozen solid as Shikamaru used his family justu on me.

"I'm sorry about this Naruto but we are going to take your scroll and your teammates." moving me off Ino and into a standing position.

"Is that so Shika? I can already see the strain holding that technique is doing to you, I just have to much chakra for it to be easy, why im sure just the littlest thing to distract you will blow your concentration and let me tell you now you really dont want me to have to break out of this my way, so how about you just let me go give me your scroll and we can leave without this turning bloody."

"No way!" Ino screeched "Shika he still has the kunai in his hand make him stab himself"

He paused for a second before looking me in the eye and saying "I'm sorry Naruto i'll make it quick"

As my body moved to reverse my own kunai towards my heart I said "I'm sorry too Shika" and flicked my eyes towards the person behind him.

A dawning look of horror overcame his face as he heard a blade slicing through flesh and he realised I hadnt yet dispelled the shadow clones left over from my battle with Sasuke and in that instant his concentration was lost and the battle was won in true ninja fashion with deceit, cunning and misdirection.

The instant his shadow disconnected with mine I lunged and slashed at Ino's throat then stabbing her a half dozen times before she hit the ground dead, at the same time the shadow clone which had slit Chouji's throat rammed his kunai home through his ear while Shikamaru went down in a hail of kunai fire from the dozen or so clones left.

Rounding up all the serviceable equipment I found on the bodies I made my way quickly and uneventfully to the tower carrying my still unconscious teammates.

It was time to show the world the new me.

Naruto 2.0

Naruto with a spine.


	2. The Quiet Ones

So here I was stuck explaining to Kakashi exactly what happened to his prized student and ive got to say he does not look impressed, in fact ive never felt more acutely than just now exactly how capable of killing me Kakashi is. He was murderous and it showed as heslowly leaked increasingly larger amounts of killer intent, by the time I finished my rendition of our adventures through the forest.

Instead of attacking me as I half expected he dismissed me and told me not to bother him again as I was no longer a student of his, because no student of his would cripple a teammate "You're worse than scum" he told me blinding himself to the Uchiha's actions.

It was a particularly smarting loss, the useless fucker hadnt actually taught me anything, still without a team getting missions would be harder and that hurt as I was barely keeping my head above water as it was, so really I needed to be promoted these exams if I wanted to have any sort of reasonable income which in and of itself was looking more and more like an increasingly daunting task what with me gutting three of Konoha's clan heirs, Fuck.

Hindsight is a bitch, it hadnt occurred to me that taking all the servicable equipment off Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji's corpses might be a tad foolish, that is until I felt Asuma's Trench Knife slip under my chin and heard him say in a chilling voice "Why do you have Shikamaru's weapons pouch?"

quickly scanning the room for a friendly face I was met with only looks of disguised glee, apathy or confusion from the foreigners.

"Because" I began, raising my hand and pushing the blade away from my throat "It was better than my one" I could actually see his bloodpressure rising with my ambiguous answer, he clearly was not the level headed man that he portrayed.

Before I could raise my concerns for his health he picked me up and threw me against the wall holding me there so that I had no hope of escaping unless he let me "How did you get it Genin!"

he ordered.

"Well Jounin Sarutobi, after I gut him like a fish I decided that there was no sense in letting a fine pouch like this rot with his useless fucking corpse, of course, you knew that, you just felt like you needed to bully a genin about it and hey presto why not pick the fucking Pariah nevermind that it was your genin who tried to kill me, nevermind that I gave them ample opportunity to just walk away, nevermind the fact that I only acted in self defense."

I paused and watched the emotions flit across his face before settling on a look I knew well, Hatred, he clearly had decided that the demon scum was lying after all his lovely little genin would never attack someone , the people in this village are fucked as soon as feasibly possible im getting the hell out of here, fuck him and everyone else too I'm going to massacre every single one of them starting with this bloody tournament.

"Perhaps if instead of just sitting on your ass doing sweet fuck all each day you actually taught them something you could have saved them from their tragic and untimely deaths, now put me the fuck down or this is going to get fucking messy"

Despite the look of rage overcoming his features this fucker had the nerve to laugh at me "The only thing that could get messy here is your blood all over the floor."

A cruel smile slid across my face now was the time for one of several bluffs I had prepared for exactly this type of situation, let it never be said that Uzumaki Naruto is unreasonably paranoid I look him dead in the eye grinning ear to ear and rip my jacket open, covering my entire undershirt are about a dozen explosive notes and thats when I piped up "Oh I don't plan on surviving if things get messy but then again you wont survive either, nor will anyone else in this hall"

"Please" he said with a derisive snort "A dozen sloppy explosive tags aren't going to be enough to kill everyone in this hall, you will probably only kill yourself and burn me pretty badly demon"

"Ahhh but you see A-su-ma"I drawled dragging the syllables of his name out "That is exactly the reason why everyone in this hall will die and probably most of Konoha too" as I studied his face I expected many things but confusion was not among them, perhaps I wasn't clear enough "I can see you cant keep up with my thought process, so allow me to elaborate, What happens when you kill a Jinchuuriki Asuma-chan?" once more I scanned the room looking at faces, once more I found many faces of confusion but this time instead of disguised or outright glee on faces only horror and fear.

"So A-su-ma do you think you cant fight a bijuu hmmm? And if you can, where precisely do you expect to find a child to seal it into, no mother would subject their child to what I went through so ill give you one last chance, put me down or things are going to get very fucking messy you useless piece of shit."

Predictably I was given a rather wide berth after that with only odd calculating look from the Hokage, the sand jounin, the sound jounin and Gaara, they worried me abit but I did have a pretty fucking big ace in my hole.

I listened as the Hokage spouted some bullshit about the exams maintaining peace when really all they amounted to was an opportunity to kill off other countries best and brightest as those were about the only people who got into these exams anyway, well them and the useless career genin hoping generally in vain to be promoted.

Looking around the room I couldnt help but feel that my newfound sense of bad-assery was somewhat diminished by my capacity as what essentially amounted to a midget and not really just any sort of midget more like a midget dressed up un funny clothes to sell tickets to a circus, bright orange really wasnt helping me come across as a hardcore ninja, of course that wasn't to say it didnt help.

Realistically bright orange only had one true flaw as shinobi clothing I was easier to spot than a ten dollar whore in a high society gathering, so while all but fatal in missions where stealth was of the utmost importance it proved to provide significant advantage in the art of underestimation, to the point of actually making it a worthwhile piece of ninja clothing.

Noone suspects the orange midget, or so I reasoned in my head, none of this went through my head as I bought it though merely that it was bright, peoples eyes are attracted to bright things ergo if I wore that people would look at me and people looking at me was the first step towards acknowledgement.

The match below me was in full swing Akado Yoroi and Hyuuga Neji going toe to toe in taijustu, Yoroi appeared to have the upper hand the Hyuuga was slowing, tiring he was all but worn out fighting against the older ninja with superior reach and strength, perhaps I was wrong, maybe Yoroi wasn't attempting to pass in vain he looked to be dominating the precious Hyuuga prodigy, ahhh here it was the Hyuuga could barely stand.

"How? My jyuuken should have shut your chakra network down by now, you shouldn't even be able to use your hands, HOW ARE YOU DOING IT?"

Imagine when to my unending suprise this ninja instead of just laughing and crushing the Hyuuga prodigy like an intelligent person should, proceeded to explain in front of his future contestants, his future enemies exactly what he was doing how he could absorb chakra through his hands negating almost every strike of the Jyuuken that Neji had landed on him.

Neji replied with true Hyuuga impassiveness "I see, it is your fate to lose here today" and before Yoroi could react the Hyuuga crushed his heart with a well placed Jyuuken strike effectively ending the bragging ninja's life, pathetic.

The next match was a short one, ridiculously so, the two weakest competitors in the entire competition facing off against one another, neither of them deserved to advance to the next round I guess it just goes to show life isn't fair as it was Hinata put the Pink haired shovel faced bitch on the dirt seven seconds after the match was officially started.

The spandexed freaks were yelling about the springtime of their youth and the younger one looked like he was high on speed amped up and bouncing about waiting for his fight, then again I supposed, he may well actually be high on speed after all we are ninja and as such we should do whatever it is that provides us with the advantage, I think that should the opportunity provide itself im going to kill whoever it is that I fight especially if its that spandexed nutcase, after all if I am going to be a whole new me I need to show people Ive changed, that I am better and that fucking with me is going to have some very real consequences and how better to show that than while dripping with the blood of my enemies?

As luck would have it Rock Lee was next and against our precious little avenger, what he was still doing in the exam at this point ill never know, he couldnt walk without crutches and his wounds still bled if he moved, the guy was an idiot but what do I care? I hope he cripples himself permanently.

The fight if one felt generous enough to call it that lasted only long enough for Rock Lee to break 13 of the Uchiha's bones or in laymans terms slightly less than a second, still it threw a whole new perspective on the green wearing nutcase, perhaps beating him like a drum wouldnt be as simple as he obviously was.

Wrapping yourself up in bandages so that you couldnt move and then getting around strapped to the back of a wooden not only seemed like a fucking idiotic idea it was a fucking idiotic idea, especially when facing an Aburame, it didn't even give you the advantage of the enemy not knowing where you are, all that the Subaku in pajamas could do was scream and writhe as specially bred Kikaichu chewed through his flesh like a hot knife through butter, if he didn't have entomophobia before the chances were pretty good he did right now, looking at the damage to Kankuro the newly mauled Subaku I made a mental note to invest in some insectide, or a suicide pill anythings got to be better than living like that, a mostly destroyed torso, although the chances are he wasn't going to make it anyway. The Suna Kunoichi looked to be alternating between absolutely distraught and furious, Shino had made an enemy there, to be honest I never thought Shino was as ruthless as that he always seemed more pragmatic than sociopathic.

Its always the quiet ones I suppose.


	3. Perhaps that was a bad idea

I blinked and almost missed the next fight the Sand-nin with the fan seemed worked up about the last fight anywho when push came to shove she just fucking decapitated the guy rather than get into a pushing fight, it was a rather impressive showing, hmmm Kabuto doesnt seem too upset to have lost both his teammates then again I just laid mine out a couple of days ago I suppose im not exactly standing on solid ground...

A booming voice ran roughshod over the dull roar that had all but erupted at the end of the last duel each person furiously conversing about the possible implications of the daughter of the Kazekage killing an allied Konoha ninja without even offering a chance for mercy a pure assassination in front of dozens of witnesses with no possibility for retribution, asking Inuzuka Kiba and Abumi Zaku to enter the Arena.

Ordinarily my money would be on just about anyone but the mutt, this time however he was facing a guy with two broken arms so double knock-out I guess honestly I couldnt give a fuck I didnt particularly like either of them, as it turned out the mutt tore him to shreds after his puppy died, both of them were still alive but neither of them would be winning any beauty contests in the future although in all fairness to me Kiba dropped unconscious moments after being declared the winner so I wasn't too far off the pace.

The next match promised to be over quickly as I watched the demented little sand kid crush the bandaged sound-nins legs within seconds, now that was a guy to watch out for he didnt exactly pay a lot of attention but his kind of raw unfocused carnage didn't really call for it.

I had never seen someone defeated with such contemptible ease he didn't even grace his victim with as much as a glance so thoroughly wrapped up in his own blood lust and glee muttering to himself apparently talking to his "mother" so much so that he didn't even notice when the sound ninja stopped screaming and started becoming increasingly coherent with one hand he formed a fist while he held the other in Gaara's direction then with one swift motion pain grimacing his face he brought his fist hammering down on the forearm to the other, the noise was unbelievable not loud but piercing as if it shook the very core of my being the people closest were brought to their knees screaming I could be stand and certainly couldn't see straight I tried to stand staunch in this agony I couldn't help but keel over in nausea, my hearing had always been a little keener than everyone else's but I had never thought it a weakness until now I would definitely have to look into that.

I came rather abruptly to me senses when a shrill howl rent through the air as the sand ninja literally exploded with golden chakra and sand his opponent torn to pieces as the chakra infused sand shredded everything near him, the proctor moving as fast as I have ever seen anyone move away from the scene of violent destruction, the Hokage himself moved from his podium to the field so quickly I wasn't aware it was happening until it happened he stood tall despite his diminutive figure battle staff held aloft the end pointed in the direction of the explosion where a half human half sand monster crawled his way out of the wall.

The rising chakra levels were oppressive to say the least, it was as though I were standing in a sauna that were far to humid and uncomfortably hot, it was hard to breath but every breath felt laboured my instincts were screaming at me to run, get away but my pride kept me watching the whole affair unfolding, for all his various faults Uzumaki Naruto was no coward.

My warring instincts were laid to rest soon enough though as the hokage delivered a crushing open handed strike to the boys sternum, though it must have been more than it appeared as the golden charkra the boy was emitting faltered for lack of a better word and then lay still Gaara and Dosu's bodies were carted off the arena one unconscious the other in pieces.

Uzumaki Naruto vs Higurashi Tenten the declaration startling in that it happened with no further adieu or discourse just continue as though the sand ninja didn't go stark raving mad.

My match-up was not favourable to me, now don't get me wrong here I wasn't scared of her but she had seen everything I had although if I was honest with myself I didn't exactly have a lot, just shadow clones, henge, kawarimi, a bunch of shiny new weapons and a few pills that I found on Chouji, fuck it quantity over quality it is I guess.

I walk onto the arena floor my head held high against the various insulting looks and taunts I was receiving Tenten looks confident, that's probably not a good sign for me.

As proctor called for the match to begin I was immediately overwhelmed by what seemed like an obscene amount of projectiles for one person to throw I had no chance to dodge or parry more than a couple I would without a doubt die, well my shadow clone will but not before he flicks a shuriken to the other side of the arena.

A cloud of silence drops over the stadium as they try to figure out exactly what happened and I consider just how close that stupid bitch came to killing me, she likes weapons eh? Well two can play that game I drop my henge and form a single handseal, hundreds of Naruto's appear and as one begin to unload every weapon they have, a veritable swarm of kunai decend on Tenten her teammate and sensei move to save her the first charging idiotically and headfirst into the hail of kunai, the second performing a jutsu while the girl herself brings a bo staff to the fore spinning it wildly fending off hundreds of kunai, impressive but meaningless she loses her fingers and the staff falls, a second later so does she.

Spandex Jr is on a collision course for the thousands more kunai still coming when a giant turtle spins into the way protecting him from the kunai, perhaps I should have let up when she fell but as the proctor has yet to call the match one way or the other I direct my clones to start suicide bombing the boy, girl and turtle.

Before I could move to create more and continue my erstwhile bombardment on the all but defenceless trio I was rather viciously sent flying and the wall of the arena concrete and bone splintering upon the impact it was pure luck that one of my clones saw what was happening swapped places with me by way of Kawarimi my head saved from the pure destruction that Maito Gai inflicted on my hapless clone I moved into a defensive position knowing I was helplessly outmatched

"ENOUGH!" I froze, not at the commanding voice but at the Killing Intent I was being subjected to, the aura was oppressive it paralyzed me with fear I was as good as dead if the owner of that aura decided it.

"There will be no interruptions to the matches, Gai you will wait for me in my office as will you Naruto."

"Rock Lee you are forbidden from entering the finals, medics see to the girl, Genma call the bout." Any objections that Lee might have felt the need to voice were quashed by his Sensei grabbing the boy.

"Yes Hokage-Sama, Winner Uzumaki Naruto." The Tokubetsu Jounin choked out despite the still murderous ambience.

"Now please continue" and with that simple declaring gone was the war hardened veteran shinobi and back was the worn and weathered Hokage looking older than ever before.

As my ANBU minders escorted me towards the Hokage tower I couldn't help but think that perhaps killing yet another Konoha ninja no matter how legally might have been a bad idea, for that matter threatening to kill the only son of the governing Hokage may have been a tad on the nose also.

I should probably think my ideas through a little more especially if it involves killing fortunately I had yet to kill anyone in anyway that couldnt be argued as self defence more a case of luck than any true fore-thought but with my body feeling as though I have been hit by a freight train I can't really bring myself to care, fuck 'em all.

Standing in the Hokage's office despite its warm opening atmosphere and years of friendly memories was anything but pleasant, perhaps because the man standing next to me my brother in uncomfortable solitude was anything but, the feelings he had towards me I'm sure were anything but brotherly as minutes before he has seen me eviscerate one of his beloved and 'youthful' students, for that matter I don't even know if the miniature spandexed freak survived my onslaught, so there I am standing next to an elite Jounin who presumably has a grudge against me the unrivaled taijutsu master of Konoha I hope he is as disciplined as he preaches because otherwise he could kill me before I react.

He is trembling, rage, blood soaked right through bandages hands and dripping through clenched fists and pattering onto the stained wood floors of the office before I can interrupt the intensely uncomfortable silence with what would no doubt be some inane or supercilious comment about untimely demise of his only female student the Hokage arrives.

"Jounin Gai" his voice ringing like bell through the silence of the room.

"Your actions this day while understandable are completely unacceptable as a ninja of Konoha not only did your actions interfere with an institution long deemed to have a zero tolerance in outside interference, you then proceeded to viciously and without warning attack a ninja a Konoha, a genin, a subordinate one who should be able to look towards you for guidance." His voice heavy with disappointment and laden with weariness.

"By rights I should label you a missing-nin now and execute you but your years of exemplary service serve you well here, from this day on you are on half pay for all missions, one quarter of what you earn will be given directly to Naruto as compensation for your unlawful attack and another quarter to be given to Konoha, you are forbidden to teach Genin ever again as it is clear that around such students your discipline fails you and Rock Lee the student you personally declared fit to be a ninja of Konoha will have his status stripped his interference in the exams another failure of yours."

"Hokage-sama" Gai moved to protest

"NO!" Sarutobi slammed his hand on the desk "I should never have allowed you to take him as a student there were dozens just as dedicated and infinitely more capable than a ninja who cannot use chakra but you were a loyal, dedicated ninja and that was what you wanted so I indulged you, I can see now that was a mistake."

"Yes Hokage-sama, the failure is my own."

"Good, you are dismissed"

It was my turn even as I stepped towards the desk behind which the Hokage now resided I could feel a cold apprehension, he was not pleased but that being said he didn't look particularly upset either just resigned.

"Although technically you have done nothing wrong Naruto, you have killed the children of three influential members of my council and threatened to unleash the Kyuubi once more on Konoha."

"I was being threatened Hokage-sama, I had no other choice to stop him." I implored practically begging him to believe me.

"Now Naruto-kun I don't believe that for a second, there is always another choice, you however Naruto have left me with very few choices, without Kakashi as a teacher to you I am left with 4 options as I have neither the time nor inclination to become a teacher again the first choice is to imprison you, an unacceptable choice for various reasons the second to banish you, an even less acceptable choice, the third find you a teacher strong enough to bring you down should you lose control of your emotions and the fourth, death." His hand raised to forestall any interruptions I might have as he pressed on.

"Now I am sure you don't want the first or fourth for that matter neither do I and I think you will find the second option will inevitably lead to your death or imprisonment"

His outward musings were disturbed by a knock at the door.


	4. Pandemonium

Chapter 4 Pandemonium

**Training Ground #14**

His kunai came up in a rushed defence barely parrying a ninjato that would have cut deep into his chest, backpedalling he came under a renewed attack from his ninjato wielding assailant, the assault halted when two of his clones drove spears directly through his assailant or at least what would have been his assailant if he hadn't broken off his attack to deal with the spear using doppelgangers.

It was at this point Naruto quickly enacted one of his battle plans, summoning another clone he sunk underground leaving the bunshin to take his place which then substituted with another hiding in the bushes around the training area.

His sensei turned to face his decoy-decoy clone left in the clearing which was charging him kunai drawn, as their chosen weapons met no sparks, noise or impact was created and the sword went through his arms as though they werent there, which coincidentally they weren't the sword dispelling the henge which covered his upper body to reveal his hands in the Tiger position as he spat water all over the ground trapping them both in the syrup trap created by his use of Suiton: Mizuame Nabara a jutsu which creates a sticky syrupy water trapping anyone who steps on it in position.

Job done the clone briefly smiled before being cut down by any one of the hundreds of kunai that peppered the training field from various Kage Bunshin hidden around the battlefield undeterred his teacher grabbed the first kunai to near him and proceeded to fend the others off only for the kunai as soon as he had finished to transform back into a shadow clone and detonate the dozen or so explosive tags strapped to his chest, his final views were watching his sensei crumple into mud.

Mentally swearing Naruto moved onto his next set of plans his original decoy which was immediately assualted in a furious kenjutsu match with what he now assumed to be the real man, taking advantage of a brief lock of blades he pushed off his sensei and made room furiously rushing through hand signs "Kawarimi no Jutsu" he intoned swapping with a bunshin 15 metres away, his sensei already committed to his attacked bisected the hapless clone water flying everywhere, meanwhile two shadow clones finished their own techniques at the exact same time the first Kori Shinchu no Jutsu a genjutsu which allows you to subtly alter the targets perception, in this case moving everthing a few centimetres to the right while the other slammed his hands onto the ground "Raiton:Denpo Sekka no Jutsu" which created a large electrical current and then sent it through the ground until it hit the patch of water and his soaking sensei where it arced out spectacularly.

Any sense of elation disappeared moments after the techniques were complete as his thoroughly fried sensei poofed into a thoroughly fried log, his vision suddenly darkened and he felt his side split open ninjato spearing forward just missing anything vital but leaving a hefty gash, performing a Shunshin no Jutsu he hightailed it out of there making sure to pump enough extra chakra into the jutsu to set off the pack of exploding tags he had buried underground.

His sensei realising the immediate threat sought to move only to be attacked by another dozen shadow clones eliciting the first words from him the whole match "Mendokusai" the scared Jounin muttered before he popped into nothingness as a spear ran through his back revealing him to be a clone.

Scanning the area wildly his clones blanketed the area surrounding him in a thick purple fog the Dokugiri no Jutsu creating a poisonous vapour that once inhaled would cause paralysis and violent internal bleeding, only sparing Naruto due to a combination of the Kyuubi and the respirator he had taken to wearing since learning the technique, turning Naruto flung a kunai at a nearby sound quickly following it up with Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and one kunai became fifty, before they could even land he was speared with agony, quite literally as tendrils of solid shadow pierced both of his shoulders and thighs pinning him to ground.

His remaining shadow clones attempted valiantly to defend him but being horribly outmatched and unable to take more than a single blow it was futile and naruto was bombarded with the memories of himself dying in increasingly more painful and humiliating ways, his sensei hated him, that wasn't hyperbole or some sort of adolescent whining, the very first words the man had said to him were "I hate you." but the man was duty bound to honour the orders of his Hokage, that and he was in prime position to as he put it "destroy me like the feral dog I was" if I ever stepped out of line or the Hokage gave the order, that being said he gave his word to the Hokage to train me to the fullest extent of his abilities and even I could tell that no matter how grudgingly or painfully it was done he had.

The man wasn't a monster on the battlefield, not like Salamander Hanzo or Sarutobi Hiruzen but given enough time to prepare for a battle I wasn't entirely sure anyone could stop him, he was, at least by my poor reckoning the most brilliant mind alive, I spent my days in awe, awe and pain.

My introspection was broken rather abruptly by my own shadow tearing through my sternum and then proceeding to choke me unconscious, the medic-nin assigned to us stopped it before it went that far and started piecing me back together for the next hour.

"Seventeen minutes and Fourty Three seconds, you have improved... barely but I suppose even the most idiotic of students can have ability beaten into them with a sufficiently qualified Master."

He wasn't lying either I had improved the extent of my ability when I first started training under him had been 27 seconds and even that was purely due to him taking the time to properly skewer and mock me before calling the match in reality it was closer to a second his shadow spearing forward and pinning me to the ground before I could move.

**Hokage Tower, Kage's Office **(One day before the Chuunin exam finals)

The room wasn't full but it was a veritable who's who of Konoha shinobi.

"How has he taken to your training Shikaku?" The Hokage questioned his Jounin Commander.

"Well enough" the man drawled "He will not be a danger to any Konoha ninja provided he is not physically attacked by them, in fact I believe he never was a danger to any Konoha ninja, he has never attacked one only defended himself, and after watching the video of his fights in Training Ground 44 I have no choice but to conclude, no matter how much I would rather not, that his killings in the Forest of Death were entirely self-defence, precipitated by Ino Yamanaka's attack of him."

"And his combat capabilities?" A Bandaged old man in the back interrupted with a gruff voice.

"I would put his combat abilities at 60 on the SSCR scale or roughly Mid B-ranked but with his chakra capacity and the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu he would be be capable of fighting and potentially winning against most Jounin if not through ability then through sheer attrition of chakra capacity and stamina."

"What methods have we taken to ensure his loyalty?" Homura Mitokado asked "We cou-"

"What would you have us do?" Jiraiya interrupted "We cannot place seals upon him for fear that they will negatively interact with the Kyuubi's seal and you people all but ruined any chance of him loving the village by telling the public about his tenant and ensuring he is ostricised for it."

"Maybe we could replace the container" Koharu replied defending his teammate.

"With who? And by who? You arent capable there are only about a half dozen people in the village capable of sealing the Kyuubi and every single one of them is serving a vital part of this villages infrastructure, not to mention there is a very real reason why the Kyuubi has always been sealed into an Uzumaki their bloodline and chakra is the only adequate container for the beast long term, unless one of you has happened upon another member of the all but extinct clan you need to keep your stupid fucking ideas to yourself and either be helpful, stay quiet or go home and die like the useless lump of flesh the two of you have become."

"Jiraya!" The Hokage exclaimed rising from his chair "That will be enough, mistake were made of that we can all agree but insulting each other is not helping the situation even remotely besides which the situation has been resolved suitably for now and I am currently looking into more permanent solutions."

"Now, how prepared are we for the coming invasion?"

**Konohagakure no Sato Fire Arena **(Chuunin Exam Day)

It wasn't until Naruto was standing in the Arena lined up with the rest of the contestants that he realised he had no idea who he was supposed to be fighting, with Lee disqualified that only left seven contestants meaning someone was going to get a bye.

"Ladies and Gentlemen" The proctor began "Today I will be filling in for Hayate Gekkou who has been unfortunately unavoidably detained by events outside of his control, I am Shiranui Genma."

"Now before we begin I would like to draw your attention to a slight change in our scheduled fights instead of the bye you were promised in the first round, we will be inviting a Genin candidate who's opponent was disqualified from competing to fill in our programming gap."

"And so without further ado will Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Neji please step forward and the rest of the contestants return to the stands until called."

The fight itself was disappointing, it began with the two of them having a pity battle each claiming their childhood was worse, then claiming their dojutsu stronger than the other, to be honest the only truly amusing part of it was when Neji claimed that it was his destiny to win only for Sasuke to form a single handseal and Neji's mask of superiority to dissolve to fear and then agonising pain.

A roar of outrage was all the could be heard from the crowd, not loudly enough for the whole crowd, not even loud enough for a quarter of the crowd in point of fact it was only a very small section of white eyed spectators yelling although oddly enough one of them a tall rather imposing man standing in the centre of the group wearing the traditional garb of the Hyuuga clan head seemed not to be outraged at all, in fact the normally abnomally stoic man seemed to have a small almost wistful smile on his face, as though he were not outraged nor even surprised by this turn of events.

"Hyuuga Neji is unable to continue, the winner of this match is Uchiha Sasuke, will the contestants Aburame Shino and Sabaku no Temari please enter the arena.

The sand ninja seemed positively ecstatic with this turn of events her face morphing into a bloodthirsty grin eerily reminiscent of her uncrippled and slightly more psychotic brother, killing intent radiating from her like heat from a fire, this would be interesting.

It wasn't, the girl was crazed and fought like a beserker blasting tearing winds at Shino with abandon completely ignorant to the fact that he had replaced himself with a Mushi Bunshin and thrown up a large slab of earth defending himself from the wind attacks whilst simulateously sneaking around behind her tanto drawn, it was over within a minute the tanto taking her right arm and slashing his sword across her face and through her eyes gouging her face near in half but leaving her alive.

There was a grudge there, someone had done something to piss somebody off and the subaku children were paying for it with a suprisingly adept Shino leading the charge, the first time he did it could have been played off as a slightly messed up Genin unintentionally allowing his victim to survive but this, this was a clear message he intended only to brutalise and cripple her, somewhere along the lines the current Kazekage had obviously made enemies with the Aburame clan of Konohagakure no Sato and was now paying for it with the lives of his children.

"Winner Aburame Shino, the next fight will be Hyuuga Hinata versus Inuzuka Kiba, please make your way down from the stands so that we may begin."

Neither of them deserved to be here, they were weak, the Hyuuga a fainting blushing fangirl and the Inuzuka a braggart with more pride than sense and his hormones running wild, it boggled the mind that he hadn't been neutered yet by his teacher the uptight Genjutsu Mistress herself, the woman was a nightmare to be around with her new Jounin ranking she walked around the town as though she were the epitome of a kunoichi meanwhile snubbing her nose at kunoichi that could snuff her in an instant because they performed seduction missions, treating them little better than common whores as unbeknownst to her she had been protected from such missions due to her affiliation with Asuma Sarutobi the sitting Hokage's son afterall it wouldnt do well for her to overhear something she shouldn't have inside the Sarutobi compound and repeat it under torture in Iwa after she had been sent their to fuck some information out of the local prefecture commander.

My point was she was no better than them and often times she was worse treating fellow jounin as though beneath her contempt, it would get her killed one day either through a stray kunai or her team being 'unable' to rescue her in time or provide adequate medical care.

Although that being said I would have to watch out for most of those myself, it was a common phrase around ninja villages that "If you can't get liked, get strong." the belief being that if you cant trust your comrades to have your back you have to be strong enough to get your own.

The Hyuuga looked shredded, her left arm hanging limply at her side but a smiled adorned her face, she had shut down Kiba's chakra network with her final blow braving the famed Gatsuuga to score the blow effective but pyrrhic she wouldnt be able to compete in her next match no matter how good the medics are, still I didn't think she had it in her.

"Winner Hyuuga Hinata, the next fight will be Subaku no Gaara versus Uzumaki Naruto, please make your way down from the stands so that we may begin."

I was keyed up, adrenaline flowing, I watched him demolish the arena in the preliminary exams and knew that with his sand jutsu he was capable of a level of destruction that I just couldn't compete with, surgical strikes were my only option, lightning fast lethal blows and when or if I hurt him make sure that I am nowhere nearby when he loses his lid and throws his toys out of the playpen.

Ah well fuck it "Let's go wild!" my opening salvo a few dozen Kage Bunshin spamming Futon: Daitoppa a wave of tearing winds which had the power to uproot enormous trees and Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu a concerntrated ball of flame capable of flash frying a man in seconds creating a collaborative technique formed by two simple but powerful C-rank techniques which when combined become a B-rank technique faster, hotter and when performed a dozen times simultaneously becomes a veritable wave of death easily A-rank my monstrous chakra reserves allowing me to use the techniques effectively despite my lack of elemental training, it wasn't until after I had let loose that I considered the spectators in the crowd who now suddenly had said wall of flame bearing down on them, fortunately at least for my continued existance it appeared they had anticipated this with a barrier technique flaring to life at the edge of the arena.

My introspective was ruined by my sudden breaking of the conventional laws of physics as one of my clones switched places with me only to be crushed brutally under a wave of sand, a disturbing memory to be sure but Shikaku-sensei had treated me to more painful and demeaning deaths, I was unfazed.

My clones upon seeing that their first technique was ineffective moved onto the next planned technique perfectly in sync with each other, the ideal teamwork for a lonesome pariah, I am sure that there is a masturbation joke in there somewhere, it's probably not even hard to find but my nerves were to jacked up to think about subtleties and jokes my mind already running through my next dozen moves, it took too much of my concerntration to do even that, my sensei could think a hundred moves ahead and already have his witty repartee ready for every situation likely to come, me I had to have clones guarding my back because my spatial awareness went to hell every time I started thinking so deeply, I was ironically enough a terrible multi-tasker despite my ability to literally be two places at once.

The second collaborative technique Suiton: Mizurappa and Raiton: Tenchuu created a raging river in mid air flying directly towards Gaara which when struck by the lightning blasts turned the water into an electrified river which arced out at super hot temperatures melting through the wall of sand that sprung up between him and the technique a circular hole with glass rimming the edges, his face shocked and pained but not pained as though he had just been struck by lightning, more like he accidently touched a hot piece of metal and also oddly enough his face was cracking, not in the sense of he had an increasingly psychotic visage although he did seem a touch more evil lord of destructiony but in the sense of parts of his face were falling off revealing a pale little boy underneath, sadly for me it was repaired moments after it began and there he was looking as unfazed as ever.

Fuck, I had quite a few eggs in that basket, those were two of my strongest techniques, well if any direct damage I could produce wasn't going to succeed then indirect it was, my clones came up with the same idea and with several muffled cries of Dokugiri no Jutsu started vomiting a miasma of purple toxins across the battlefield while I made my exit underground using Doton:Dochu Eigyo no Jutsu which allows me to move through the ground as though swimming.

The poison was all well and good but if he was breathing it in, by now he would be on the floor dead meaning he either has some sort of inbuilt resistance to poison meaning I needed to get him breathing heavily and spread the poison or perhaps his sand armour was somehow filtering the poison allowing him to breathe clean air, time for plan number four Doton: Retsudo Tensho the earth tore beneath his feet crushing and smashing earthen chunks together with Gaara in the middle, at least it did until his sand blew through the earth tearing it asunder and dispelling my clones, the memory shock was jarring and plans five through eight disappeared alongside my clones.

Plan number nine was dangerous but then again there was a reason it wasn't plan number one, Kori Shinchu no Jutsu would throw his perception off by a couple of feet and hopefully throw his sand off by a couple of feet, although with the way it was moving autonomously I wasnt sure it would help.

It didn't the sand wasn't unerred even in the slightest spearing through the clones face with pinpoint accuracy as fast as any of Shikaku-sensei's shadows, this was not looking promising, plan number ten was on the face of it quite ridiculous, storage scrolls, dozens of storage scrolls to hopefully store his sand limiting his offensive and defensive abilities, I pulled a storage scroll from my back containing a couple of dozen more pre-made storage scrolls.

Of interest to note was that you could use a storage scroll to summon other storage scrolls only so long as you made them yourseld, actually strictly not true you could use a storage scroll to store more scrolls provided the scrolls you were storing had themselves never been used as storing a storage scroll inside another when it was already holding something would cause an eximplosion as I liked to call it, storage scrolls were actually the simplest forms of space-time jutsu and when you mess up space-time jutsus bad things happen, you get stretched and crushed, exploded and collapsed, basically all sorts of bad things and it was invariably fatal, this was why you couldn't use store bought scrolls as they had all been tested before getting sold quality control etc and no matter how good the person using the scrolls chakra control was it was all but impossible to believe that they didn't seal even a breath of air.

Luckily for me making storage seals was part of my tutelage under Shikaku-sensei, suprisingly sealing the sand seemed to be working perfectly, right up until he started using what sand he had left to grind up the earth and make more, Fuck he was losing his shit up there aswell screaming about his mother and mumbling to himself, the crowd had gone eerily quiet, I don't think any of them expected me to survive this long and there they sat with bated breath and fingers crossed hoping that any moment would be my last.

Well if direct damage and indirect damage wouldn't then how about an unending barrage of direct damage, a battle of attrition was always going to be the last resort, well short of using the Kyuubi but that had issues all of its own first and foremost it would give ammunition to those who would rather I didn't exist.

My Suiton: Mizurappa and Raiton: Tenchuu combination drained chakra like crazy, well like crazy for other people, I could use it non-stop twenty times simultaneously for about fifteen minutes before I started running out of puff.

After ten I could tell that he was just about done, his eyes were wide and wild and his sand was growing thinner with him focusing more and more of his reserves to his frontal defence exactly as I had hoped disappearing in a Shunshin one of my clones appeared directly behind him spear thrusting forward using what little lightning manipulation I was capable of to add to the piercing abilities, driving straight through his sand covered spine nearly decapitating him and neatly severing his spinal cord.

He was dead two seconds after that thrust.

Every clone I had was gone five seconds after that as a massive monster of sand roared a wave of destruction annihilating everything above ground within the barrier technique.

Ten seconds after that a giant toad came crashing down on the beast.

Five seconds later the crowd broke out in pandemonium as sleeper cells and enemy agents turned on the citizenry of Konoha.

**The SSCR Scale**

The SSCR scale is the **S**tandardised **S**hinobi **C**ombat **R**ating

It rates a persons abilities in Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Fuinjutsu, Speed, Strength, Stealth, Hand Seal Speed, Chakra Control, Bukijutsu, Chakra Capacity, Stamina and Tactical Thinking.

Each ninja is given a mark from 0-10, 0 being completely unable to use and 10 being a genius trained to their peak ability.

The person with the higher overall score will not necessarily win any given fight as there are many variables but in a one on one situation fought fairly it will give a decent indication of the more capable shinobi.

As far as Bingo book ratings an overall score of:

0-15 is E-rank: roughly average Civilian level.

15-30 is D-rank: Academy student to Low ranked Genin.

30-50 is C-rank: Genin to Low ranked Chuunin

50-75 is B-rank: Chuunin to Tokubetsu Jounin

75-100 is A-rank: Lowly ranked Jounin to Elite Jounin

100-130 is S-rank: Anbu Commander to Kage and beyond.


	5. Invasion

**Konohagakure no Sato Fire Arena**

The next few hours both flew and dragged by.

The battle between Jiraiya and the Sand Monster/Gaara raged with enough ferocity to make my own waves of destruction that I had rained down upon the arena seem nothing more than trifle carnival tricks, Jiraiya launching in conjunction with his toad summon a wave of flames so hot that it burnt white and seared the very air from my lungs even as I stood behind him, nowhere near the firing line of the Jutsu, he palmed the earth and turned the very ground upon which we stood into a terrible tar pit which was slowly drawing me under despite the chakra from my soles pushing against it.

I was in awe, this man was everything I one day hoped to be on the battlefield, a veritable god laying waste whenever and wherever he saw fit, a clone grabbed me and threw me out of the arena his silver white mane flashing as he yelled after me to take down as many Suna and Oto shinobi as I could.

I hadn't even realised it at the time but while Jiraiya was fighting Gaara the stands had erupted into bloodshed and I was thrown headlong towards a group of Oto chuunin advancing on a section of scared Konoha civilians, my mind racing I relied on one of my staple tactics for escaping an uncontrolled free fall, I launched a kunai at the contingent of Oto shinobi and intoned with a steady voice Kage Kunai Bunshin no Jutsu, my single kunai becoming dozens and tearing deeply into the flesh of the four shinobi too slow to react.

Before I had even completed my next technique I already had a flaming dragon of destruction bearing down on me, obviously they were faster than I had both hoped and given them credit for nevertheless I completed my technique before it landed and switched places with my earlier thrown kunai, a hastily summoned Kage Bunshin served as an adequate human shield as shuriken struck it mere feet away from me giving me barely enough time to complete a Fuuton: Daitoppa which served to send any remaining projectiles still bearing down on me back at their respective senders.

They avoided them but the brief respite from them dodging created a lull in combat allowing me to summon several dozen Kage Bunshin and enact several layers of defence for myself, the first being that I was now several hundred metres away underground and had a small squad of shadow clones ready and willing to trade places with me should I even come within five metres of danger, the rest however had split into two groups half charging forward spears in hand attempting to skewer, slash or even batter the Oto shinobi to death, my spearwork was shoddy but the reach it provided and the sheer numbers I deployed served to cover a lot of the holes in my technique as well as lengthen the amount of time my clones survived by both keeping the enemy from using throwing weapons or jutsu and maintaining enough distance that they weren't immediately dispelled by taijutsu users, dont get me wrong my taijutsu was coming along but it was still very reliant on my ability to take a hit and keep going which wasn't exactly something my clones excelled at, hence the spear.

While that half engaged the enemy up close my remaining clones initiated what I liked to call my 'Go To Plan' the basic plan being engage the enemy in close range combat with clones and then rain fiery hell down upon them.

It worked pretty well, the explosive tags despite being shadow clones of explosive tags worked because the seal was still recreated in a medium of chakra, it didn't work as well as a proper explosive tag, there was some degradation throughout the process but sheer numbers made up for it and I didnt have to buy or make hundreds of tags as long as I didn't use any of the original ones.

There were three left from a squad of twelve, one completely uninjured and one mostly uninjured, the last one was lying in that special place just between dead and alive where you wish you were dead but you weren't quite close enough to just up and die, so really two left.

As a battle technique the Shunshin no jutsu was sub par, unless it was perfected to the point that you barely left any telltale chakra signatures or was too quick to react to it almost always left the person performing it skewered on the battlefield, so unless you were a near savant in it you had to accept that you were going to get stabbed as soon as you reached that sweet spot behind your enemy, that isn't to say they wouldn't get stabbed either just that you have to accept a pyrrhic victory if you couldn't heal at near miraculous rates, fortunately for me sacrificing a clone to kill an enemy combatant was barely a cost at all, unfortunately for me the first enemy, the one completely unscathed thus far managed to swap out with a Tsuchi Bunshin, the second however despite evading the first and blocking the second and third clone got run through by the next three and fell to the ground clutching gaping holes in his chest.

"You bastard" I heard rather disconcertingly from behind me "That was my brother I'll kill you" the anger had made him sloppy, if he hadn't warned me that he was there, then there would be no way that I could have switched places with one of my clones in time to evade the mountainous slabs of earth crushing through my previous hiding spot, my hands reflexively flying through handseals and throwing a bolt of lightning the Raiton: Tenchuu tearing through the weak earth wall that he had hastily erected, he pivoted on the spot dodging the bulk of the attack but catching the edge of it on his side briefly, not fatal not even damaging by itself but when combined with the momentary paralysis and half a dozen other bolts of electricity spearing towards him it was thoroughly fatal, the mans cauterised organs exposed through the fist sized holes riddling his body.

Shikaku-sensei had drilled into me, occasionally literally correct etiquette and protocol to any number of situations, in event of an invasion my first duty was to link up with a superior officer and drive the enemies from within Konoha proper then wait for further orders, unfortunately my skills did not lend themselves to teamwork my style was reckless and destructive, substituting technique for chakra and quality for quantity, collateral damage was not something I could not afford, Shikaku-sensei had stressed how tenuous my standing was in the high council, so the way I see it the only way for me to defend Konoha and myself was to fail to link up with a superior officer or to link up with Shikaku-sensei who both knew how I fought and could more than keep up with my meager abilities.

My next skirmish wasn't for another half an hour but with the adrenaline I had pumping through my system the time dragged on slowly, the enemy combatants in and around the stadium had already been neutralised and the remaining ninja were sealed in a gigantic purple barrier surrounded by ANBU, every other Konoha ninja I could see were escorting civilians, helping the wounded or making their way towards the massive three-headed purple snakes that had just torn down several sections of the walls surrounding Konoha.

I could escape I suppose but I wasn't strong enough to survive outside the village by myself, ANBU would come crashing down on me within three days of me leaving and drag me back into the village only to get crushed underfoot by the council and despite how much leeway I could get away with by dint of being the villages only Jinchuuriki, treason was not something I could get away with, not yet at least.

Most of the jutsu I knew had no real chakra cap, just a point where the chakra was most efficiently used any excess chakra used after that point just provided diminishing returns in strength, ideal considering my chakra levels which were just this side of a Bijuu and replenished themselves almost before I had finished using them and my chakra control which was at highest barely above genin despite somewhere close to one thousand hours of chakra control training in the last month, one clone training in water walking, one in tree walking and another in leaf balancing every day for around eleven hours a day, my point was that when faced with a three headed snake that was over seventy metres long and weighed near on three hundred tonne a C-Ranked short to mid range earth technique that caused spears of solidified rock to erupt from the ground when drastically overwhelmed with chakra could become a technique that launched several razor-sharp spears from the ground over fifty metres tall, completely unusable against anything any smaller than a Class 5 summon.

My body burned, as though my bones themselves were heating to unbearable temperatures, I had burnt through more chakra in the last hour than any of my contemporaries could drop in a year and despite still having more in the tank my chakra pathways were starting to wear, I could and would keep going but tomorrow was going to be hell.

A wind bullet came tearing through the cloud of smoke that billowed from the dispersing snake and hit me on my right, the pressure caving my ribs and the rending winds ripping my body and arm, I had forgotten in the turmoil to keep my real body concealed at all times, it wasn't completely incapacitating but I wouldn't be capable of continuing, summoning a baker's dozen of clones one carried me from the battlezone and the other dozen performed a collaboration Futon: Daitoppa, Katon: Gokakyu overloading their respective jutsu using the entirety of their chakra and existence in seconds the fiery conflagration overwhelming the whole area in a sea of flames and screams as the shinobi with their vision blocked by smoke ended up in the direct path of my fire technique.

The shinobi who had struck me down fell back to assist his comrades as my clone continued to carry me to safety, the last thing I saw before my vision darkened the alabaster mask of a Konoha ANBU.

**Konohagakure no Sato Secure Medical Facility**

My whole body itched as I awoke to find myself strapped to a bed in a sterile looking room, medical equipment nearby but unused, I knew why the itch was an after effect of the Kyuubi's chakra being used to rebuild my body, the itch itself more akin to my body sensing demonic chakra than any sort of physical itch which could be scratched for relief, the only relief for exposure to demonic chakra was time.

That I wasn't dead of chained to a dank dungeon somewhere boded well for Konoha's and more importantly my survival.

Three hours I was left alone drifting in and out of consciousness but it gave me plenty of time to consider my actions during the invasion.

I took away from the whole affair two things, the first I was weak and the second, I desperately needed some summons, watching that giant toad go toe to toe with a Bijuu as I later found out the sand monster was, was amazing, something astoundingly difficult to do with something as simple as elemental ninjutsu, lacking autonomous action it required at least partial concentration and often a constant drain on chakra not to mention the people capable of simultaneously casting ninjutsu was basically limited to elite jounin and higher and the amount of people capable of simultaneously casting high level ninjutsu with enough power behind them to damage a bijuu was probably less than fifty people in the elemental nations.

So basically I needed summons, well wanted and as far as I knew there were only three ways to get a summoning contract.

Number one, find a tribe/clan/species of animals that have for centuries been thriving in an area of high natural chakra concentration, the chakra slowly gets absorbed by the species and over the generations changes and manipulates the species, increasing size, intelligence, strength and giving the ability to mould chakra, then gain the trust of said species and sign a summoning contract with them, a mutually beneficial contract most often exchanging chakra for service, not exactly the easiest way but possible I suppose, at least for a normal ninja who wasn't leashed to a village and would be allowed outside to hunt for such a thing, so no luck there.

Number two, find someone who already holds a summoning contract and ask to sign said contract but since most summoning animals very rarely accepted more than a couple of summoners finding a summoner who was both willing to let me sign and had a spare spot on the contract seemed like some pretty remote odds which were only compounded by the fact that I was basically a pariah in the village, so that way was out.

Number three, breed a species of animals and pump large amounts of chakra into them daily, after several generations the resulting animals should be capable of enough intelligence to sign a summoning contract and would only continue to grow from there, in fact there were several species of animals in The Forest of Death that were just on the verge of that level of thought and within one or two generations would be more than capable summons, if not as physically imposing or knowledgable as some of the more longstanding species.

Number three seemed like the choice for me, it was the sort of thing the Hokage would probably approve aswell if only because I was one of the few ninja worldwide with enough chakra to do so quickly enough to see results within a couple of years and to provide Konoha with a new contract and summoner.

My weakness would not be any easier to remedy, I was incapable of finesse, I lacked the training in my early years and the time in the last month to correct it, my only real saving grace was my quite frankly ridiculous levels of chakra and ability to get beat and get up.

Training was the only thing that could help me, fortunately the effects of said training would be compounded by the fact that I could train in dozens of things simultaneously, my tutelage under Shikaku-sensei teaching me that while having one hundred clones train in the same technique could roughly double my learning speed having one hundred clones train in one hundred different things wouldn't increase my learning speed at all but I would be simultaneously learning one hundred things, the effect being that given enough time I could literally learn everything remotely assosciated with being a ninja.

According to Shikaku-sensei the training I was completing had been done by very few other shinobi, most lacking the sheer chakra capacity required to turn the idea into reality, it was said that the last to train in such a way, though to a lesser extent was Uchiha Itachi the famed genius/murderer of the Uchiha clan and the first Sarutobi Hiruzen the God of Shinobi, the Kage Bunshin no jutsu it turned out was not in the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing because it was a kinjutsu but rather because it was a highly guarded village training technique that other villages both would and had killed for the chance to look at.

It turned out that Kage Bunshin no jutsu was an integral part of Konoha's survival with the rapid increases in strength that it could provide supplying Konoha with shinobi capable of fending off the advances of all the other villages combined.

**Konohagakure no Sato Hokage's Office**

"Give me a casualty report both the enemy and our own Tenzou?"

The cat masked ANBU answered without delay "The casualty lists are as follows Hokage-Sama enemy loses at a conservative estimate are somewhere in the vicinity of seven thousand three hundred shinobi with another fourteeen hundred captured while our own casualties are two thousand four hundred and twenty-three with a further one hundred and sixty-four not expected to survive the week, our injuries are four thousand and seventy-eight with over sixty percent of those expected to be ready for duties this time next week and over eighty-five percent by next month."

"I see, and the infrastructure?" Sarutobi Hiruzen enquired from behing his desk, face hidden behind paperwork that even now he was pouring over attempting to fully understand the situation.

"The stadium was heavily damaged by the fighting aswell as the market district, the Uchiha sector and the walls outside the market district and Uchiha sector, as far as we can tell they attacked those areas as they expected our response to be slowed due to civilian casualties and a lack of stationed troops respectively, the Academy, Hospital, R & D centre and the prison all suffered minor damage due to nearby fighting, the R & D centre and the prison both came under direct assault by enemy agents but were fended off, preliminary reports suggest they expected reinforcements from within Konoha that did not arrive."

"Yes, I was well aware that we had divisive elements in Konoha and I took measures in the days leading up to the invasion to deal with said elements."

"If that is all, you are dismissed." The Hokage waved in a dismissive gesture eyes never leaving his paperwork, as soon as the ANBU agent left he turned to look at the man who entered through his window, lowering his paperwork he voiced "How are the containment seals on the Ichibi?"

"They will last for another three years at least probably closer to five but I figure this is one of those things its better to low-ball, what are you planning to do with it Sensei?"

"If you take the seat then you can decide to do with it as you please Jiraiya." the Hokage said looking at his one truly loyal student imploringly.

"Never, I'm not so naïve as to believe your grandfatherly façade, I can barely stomach the crap I do in the name of Konoha at your orders, I don't have the strength to order it myself Sensei."

"I know Jiraiya, I know." The old man sighed wearily "With the Kazekage dead Suna is weak, so I have ordered three battalion's to march on Suna under command of Nara Shikaku who will upon his return succeed me as Hokage, your mission is to retrieve Tsunade and rendezvous with the Battalions outside of Suna."

Jiraiya's eyes sharpened with startling intensity at the mention of Tsunade "Sensei Tsunade won't"

"She will" The Sandaime interupted eyes hard as granite"Because you will tell her it is an order, and if that fails you will use your sealing ability to place a torture seal on both her and her apprentice and if she still decides not to come, you will bring her back here for interrogation and execution."

"Sensei" Jiraiya implored "Can't we just leave her alone?"

"You have your orders now leave Jiraiya"

"Before I leave, my Godson, how is he?"

"You saw him, hes paranoid and rightfully so, he's a pariah and only one little push away from a full-blown homicidal rampage, he is beyond being considered a flight risk and his Sensei wants nothing more than to be the man to kill him, he is a mess."

The large man seemed to deflate in front of the Hokage and left without another word.


End file.
